In this edition we cover:

• What's next for Eungedup Wetlands?
• Farmers in Focus - Phil and Cath Wishart
  
• Nullaki Update - surprise caught on cam
• Inlet Update
• Rainfall Update
• Growing pasture in a drying climate
• What's on

We have now raised the funds to purchase Eungedup Wetlands!  On behalf of Wilson Inlet Catchment Committee, Birdlife Australia, Gondwana Link, Denmark Bird Group, Conservation Council of WA, Wetlands Conservation Society and Georgina Steytler, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to our donors for making this a reality.  You have all played a part in protecting a precious wetland and its resident wildlife. 

In February 2022 a group of landcare and environmental organisations came together at a coffee shop in Albany to explore options for conserving one of the most iconic wetlands in our region.  None of us had any money but we all had a passion to conserve the best wetland  between Albany and Denmark.  With most of the wetlands in this region historically drained for agriculture, it has placed enormous importance on the few remaining ones.  Eungedup, the Menang name for the area, was the jewel of these wetlands.  Periodically used to grow seed potatoes, the wetlands featured critically endangered Australasian Bittern and Western Ringtail Possums.  They are also home to approximately 110 species of birds, most of which are wetland dependent species.  The sounds of the birds and frogs can be deafening there at times.

WICC put its hand up to use their fledgling tax deductible charity status to raise the funds to buy the wetland and the Eungedup Management Group was formed.  A negotiator approached the owner (the wetlands were not on the market) and a price was agreed to.  Chris and Georgina Steytler provided the first $10,000 in June 2022 and we were off…. albeit slowly.  We were provided 18 months by the owner to raise $505,000.  In January 2023 (8 months in) we had raised about $115,000 (or 23%) of the funding.  Questions were being asked, ‘What will you do with the money if we didn’t hit the target?’  

One by one, a few locals with a passion for conservation approached WICC wanting to visit Eungedup.  After seeing the wetland around $100,000 was donated between them.  The McCusker Trust Foundation became interested and pledged a further $100,000.  In the height of this momentum an anonymous donor injected $203,000 and the end was in site.  Several locals brought it home.

Eungedup settles on 30 June 2023.  WICC and its project partners have been monitoring, managing ferals and mapping weeds for nearly a year at Eungedup.  The next stage will be deploying a series of song meters (audio recorders) throughout the wetland, experimenting with typha control, monitoring water levels, trapping cats, eradicating weeds, monitoring water quality, developing a master plan, installing a bird hide, developing a management plan and constructing a wetland centre.  

The proposed wetland centre will be situated in the corner of the properties so as not to overly disturb the native wildlife.  It will be used to engage school student in wetland ecology and the design and layout of the centre will have this objective front and centre.   School groups will be able to use the latest technology to control and listen to remote sensors and video cameras, analyse camera trap data, monitor water quality, thus helping to build the capacity of our next generation of wetland custodians to tackle the challenges of climate change.  South Coast NRM has graciously pledged up to $50,000 from the South Coast Environment Fund towards the wetland centre.  Once WICC finalises a master plan for Eungedup it will be distributed for comment, costed and fund raising for phase 2 will begin. 

WICC would like to thanks the 418 donors who have secured Eungedup Wetlands for its wildlife.

Happy Wishart cattle alongside conserved bushland

WICC recently caught up with Bremer growers’, Phil and Cathy Wishart, to chat about striking a balance between profit and sustainability. 

WICC:  Tell us about your farm…

Phil:  We are around 4500 hectares now, made up of four properties near Bremer Bay. The business initially revolved around a feedlot supplying grain fed yearlings for Woolworths. We would utilise 800-900 calves of our own as well as buying in 800-1200 yearlings to finish them over 70 to 90 days on grain.  We ran around 1800 ewes as well.  We grew our own grain, silage and hay for the feedlot.  We have recently changed all of that and decided to scale down.  We are just running about 1000 Angus breeders at this stage with a little bit of crop (500 hectares) which is mostly silage, grazing crops, wheat and some Faba beans.  We got rid of the sheep as well.

WICC: Why did you downsize?

Phil:  Cath and I are on our own mostly now.  The kids have moved off the farm and are doing their own thing.  The last 20 years have been quite hectic.  When most families finished harvest, they would all head down to the beach for a holiday but we really just kept working.  You are working 7 days a week from sun up until after dark.  We now want to have time to concentrate on managing our native bush and helping to conserve the landscape.  When you are working flat out it is hard to find the time to do those things you love.  We want to work with the environment rather than fighting against it all the time.  

WICC: Cath and you recently gave a very generous donation to WICC so we could purchase Eungedup Wetlands.  Thank you.  What have you done on your properties to look after wetlands?

Phil: Over the last twenty or so years we have fenced off nearly all of our wetlands.  Some of these are 200 to 300 hectares each so they are quite sizable. There are also a lot of smaller yate swamps which is the nature of this country.  We have been collecting seed locally and planting out corridors that join those wetlands and remnant vegetation.  We want to farm for the long term, environmentally and sustainably.

WICC: Can a large enterprise like yours farm sustainably?

Phil: Definitely.  We believe you can still farm profitably and work with the environment and promote biodiversity.  I would not describe ourselves as regenerative farmers but we try to be more considerate of our immediate environment in our farming operations. Things like minimal use of insecticides and fungicides and incorporating more legumes into our rotation rather than relying upon synthetic nitrogen.  We are rotating beans, lupins, and vetches. We want to make a profit but it doesn’t have to be at the exclusion of everything else.  Money is not everything.

It is not my place to tell other people how to farm but I think we all need to think more about the consequences of what we are doing.  These areas we are farming haven’t been cleared for very long in the whole scheme of things.  Around here less than 100 years. If you drive not far from here through South Stirlings, you will see that a lot of the remnant Yate swamps are dying out from salinity as a result of excessive land clearing. There is a huge amount of damage that has happened already and unless we protect the remnant bush and revegetate other areas within the landscape to encourage biodiversity, the outcome will be bleak and I really wouldn’t want to see this place in 100 or so years.  

It is our belief that producing food profitably and maintaining a healthy environment do not need to be mutually exclusive.

By Tim Gamblin

Nullaki Feral Predator Camera Monitoring Summary ​

Thirteen infra-red, passive, black-flash, motion cameras are currently installed in the fenced Nullaki peninsula. They are set to monitor feral predators – namely cats and foxes. Cameras are located on City of Albany tenure and on private land. In the period January to April 2023, 26 000 photos were taken. There were 13 feral predator events in 266 trap-nights. A trap night is the period of time a camera is set and usually measured as number of nights per camera that it’s set, but includes daytime records too. It’s a measure of survey effort. A ‘feral predator event’ is an image or group of images taken immediately after each other which we presume is the same animal that triggered the camera. We then use a 5-minute interval without a photo of this animal as the division between this event and the following. This gives an indication of activity. It may still mean it’s the same animal that has returned. Between January and April there were 3 fox and 10 cat events, averaging 1 every 20 nights, with more than three times as many cat events as foxes (numbers are very small though). 

Feral predator events on the Nullaki. 

Good strong statistics require a larger dataset but really, we’re happy with low numbers of ferals!  Most of the cat activity occurred in the middle to western end of the Nullaki. Most of the fox activity was in the eastern end. Five of 13 cameras captured cats, 2 of 13 cameras captured foxes. On average the cameras that captured images of cats did so every 16 days and the two that captured foxes did that every 7. The next update will be in July/August. Two more cameras will be added and then the Nullaki array will be complete. We hope that with ongoing predator management via a baiting and trapping program the numbers will further decrease and be maintained at as low a level as possible. Its unlikely there will ever be null predators as the Nullaki is open to Ocean beach at the western end when the inlet is closed, and in addition the eastern predator proof fence occasionally has ‘leaks’. Despite this the fence still serves to protect biodiversity by reducing feral animal movement and keeps them within an area of a concentrated management program.  

Camera locations on the Nullaki. Two more will be added to complete the array.

Bats, most likely the lesser, long-eared bat - Nyctophilus geoffroii, feral cats, aged from kittens to older individuals, Southern Brown Bandicoot (quenda) and Ringtail possum (critically endangered) are common sightings.

Oh deer

An unexpected photo.  Likely escapee from a deer farm. For those eagle-eyed readers, I realise the date is April Fool’s, but this is a genuine photo. Probably travelled across from Ocean Beach.

Brief Eungedup Wetland Update

Not far east of the Nullaki we are also monitoring feral predators in the Eungedup Wetlands (EW) with cameras (see WICC Newsletter Bunuru 2023, last summer, for details).  In contrast to the Nullaki, cats are few and foxes dominate. They’re more adept and comfortable moving through and hunting in wetter conditions. After the second round of camera monitoring, we still haven’t recorded any cats. The number of native species is high due to the presence of the wetland and include a range of bush birds as per the Nullaki but also seen on camera are water birds such as rails, swamphens, crakes, ducks, spoonbill and swamp harriers (raptor). Mammals recorded on motion camera are similar to the Nullaki but with addition of water rats (rakali or ngurju) which will also be on the Nullaki but not yet photographed. A healthy population of quenda, bush rats and mardo (yellow footed antechinus) remain, despite high fox numbers.  Hopefully we’ll see an uptick in their numbers with 1080 baiting.

Fox activity (#events) for all cameras across EW for the period Jan- May 2023. Red line indicates commencement of 1080 baiting in the area. 

A fox quietly waiting and watching for water birds.

A recent decline in fox numbers at Eungedup particularly in the Lowlands portion of the wetland - we hope is partly due to the 1080 baiting regime which began in mid-February and targeted that area. However, with low number bias, it’s difficult to be certain. 

For further information on managing feral cats and foxes please check out the following resources from Invasive Species Solutions.

The second half of Djeran exhibited an exceptionally long period of warm and calm weather for Wilson Inlet. This provided good conditions for microalgae growth and the autumn bloom lasted longer than normal, until end of Djeran. Microalgae productivity reduced when the first cold front, typical for Makuru, arrived at the beginning of June with plenty of rain and cold temperatures. Rain caused river flows and the inlet water level to start increasing, something that will continue if rain lasts throughout Makuru.  

For further information, visit the Healthy Estuaries WA website where you can see the current inlet water level and read recently updated information about the health of local rivers. More about the inlet: https://estuaries.dwer.wa.gov.au/estuary/wilson-inlet/ . More about river health: Wilson River Health - Healthy Estuaries (dwer.wa.gov.au)

Water height at old railway bridge 22nd June  

Inlet water level at old railway bridge 24th June

Denmark got off to a good start for April due to a couple of cold fronts which nipped the coast while May dropped to below average rainfall for all of the catchment.  Our primary climate driver, the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is currently neutral. All models suggest a positive IOD is likely to develop in the coming months. A positive IOD typically supresses winter and spring rainfall over much of Australia, and if it coincides with El Niño (which is what is anticipated), it can exacerbate El Niño's drying effect in the eastern states.  El Niño has minimal impact on our region. (BoM)

April - May WA rainfall (BoM)

The newly formed Owingup Kent Growers Group (OKGG) has grown to include over 30 properties, with new members joining all the time to support new farming practices, soil health, bird life, water health, and pasture management. The group is excited to announce that they will be holding regular events in the Kentdale Hall and around the catchment, where they will share ideas, showcase their progress, and recruit guest presenters and experts from across Australia.

OKGG’s most recent catchup explored how to better grow pasture in a drying climate. Ron Watkins, farm landscape planning consultant, outlined his approach considering multiple elements when planning infrastructure on farms. Next, Paul Sanford, experienced pasture researcher from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), spoke about emerging research identifying feed gaps and pinpointing what farmers can do to ensure abundant feed year-round. 

Ron explained that drainage banks – combined with carefully-situated dams and shelter belts – can increase stored water, prevent waterlogging and improve pasture growth. Multi-species shelter belts, made up of a range of shrubs and trees, can also improve pasture productivity as well as animal wellbeing. “Why wouldn’t you want birds and insects working for you – they never take days off and you don’t have to pay them!” said Ron. Shelter belts create habitat for insect-eating birds, and insects that prey on other insects, preventing pasture damage.

Paul Sanford then highlighted the increasing popularity of planting additional pasture species into kikuyu-based pastures, to increase feed availability at times when it’s most needed. Oats and ryegrass were a common combination, with oats providing feed earlier in winter and ryegrass and clover reaching their peak later, in spring. Having a combination of a diverse range of plants from different families is a useful strategy. 

OKGG is funded in part by the Western Australian Government’s State Natural Resource Management Program. Contact Kylie Cook; 0427529077 or Benita Cattalini; [email protected] for more information. 

Our first community planting day is Friday 30th June, from 9am onwards at 167 OCEAN BEACH RD.

(Next to Blossoms Nursery - follow the event sign)

Like the work we are doing?

Want to catch up on some old WICC News, click HERE​ for previous editions.